ReviewMolecular psychiatry2022
Molecular mechanisms underlying the antidepressant actions of arketamine: beyond the NMDA receptor.
Review in Molecular psychiatry, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 120 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
120 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 229 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effect of perioperative esketamine administration on the incidence of postoperative delirium: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC anesthesiology · 2026Pooled it
- Effects of esketamine on postoperative delirium in adult patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.Frontiers in neurology · 2026Pooled it
- Natural antidepressants in neuroimmunomodulation: molecular mechanisms, action targets, and therapeutic potential.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Pooled it
- Efficacy and safety of perioperative application of ketamine on postoperative depression: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled studies.Molecular psychiatry · 2023Pooled it
- The use of esketamine in the treatment of patients with oral antidepressant-resistant depression: systematic review and meta-analysis.Revista da Associacao Medica Brasileira (1992) · 2023Pooled it
- The use of esketamine in the treatment of patients with severe depression and suicidal ideation: systematic review and meta-analysis.Revista da Associacao Medica Brasileira (1992) · 2023Pooled it
- Investigation of Esketamine Administration During Surgical Procedures for the Alleviation of Postoperative Anxiety and Depression in Adolescent Patients: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Drug design, development and therapy · 2026Trial
- The impact of intraoperative esketamine infusion on postoperative sleep in patients undergoing general surgery.BMC anesthesiology · 2025Trial
- Esketamine prevents postoperative sleep disturbance in patients with preoperative sleep disorders: a role for oral microbiota.Translational psychiatry · 2025Trial
- The Effect of Minimal-Dose S-Ketamine Administration Post-Surgery on Opioids Consumption and Functional Rehabilitation Exercises in Patients Undergoing Minimally Invasive Radical Resection of Esophageal Cancer.Therapeutics and clinical risk management · 2025Trial
- Effect of Intraoperative Intravenous Infusion of Esketamine Combined with Dexmedetomidine on Postoperative Sleep Disturbance in Patients Undergoing Radical Mastectomy.Drug design, development and therapy · 2025Trial
- Does the intensity of dissociation predict antidepressant effects 24 hours after infusion of racemic ketamine or esketamine in treatment-resistant depression? A secondary analysis from a randomized controlled trial.Trends in psychiatry and psychotherapy · 2025Trial
- Efficacy of a single low dose of esketamine after childbirth for mothers with symptoms of prenatal depression: randomised clinical trial.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2024Trial
- Perioperative Adjunctive Esketamine for Postpartum Depression Among Women Undergoing Elective Cesarean Delivery: A Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2024Trial
- Efficacy of esketamine for the treatment of postpartum depression and pain control following cesarean section: a randomized, double-blind, controlled clinical trial.BMC anesthesiology · 2024Trial
- Effect of Intraoperative Esketamine Infusion on Postoperative Sleep Disturbance After Gynecological Laparoscopy: A Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2022Trial
- Is (S)-norketamine an active mediator of esketamine's antidepressant effects?Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Pleiotropic modulation of the gut-brain-lung axis by ketamine and its enantiomers.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Review
- Clinical innovations and future directions of nanoparticles in the treatment of psychiatric and neurological disorders.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Review
- The Role of the NMDA Receptor in the Treatment of Psychiatric and Neurological Diseases.Brain sciences · 2026Review
60 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The discovery of robust antidepressant actions exerted by the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) antagonist (R,S)-ketamine has been a crucial breakthrough in mood disorder research. (R,S)-ketamine is a racemic mixture of equal amounts of (R)-ketamine (arketamine) and (S)-ketamine (esketamine). In 2019, an esketamine nasal spray from Johnson & Johnson was approved in the United States of America and Europe for treatment-resistant depression. However, an increasing number of preclinical studies show that arketamine has greater potency and longer-lasting antidepressant-like effects than esketamine in rodents, despite the lower binding affinity of arketamine for the NMDAR. In clinical trials, non-ketamine NMDAR-related compounds did not exhibit ketamine-like robust antidepressant actions in patients with depression, despite these compounds showing antidepressant-like effects in rodents. Thus, the rodent data do not necessarily translate to humans due to the complexity of human psychiatric disorders. Collectively, the available studies indicate that it is unlikely that NMDAR plays a major role in the antidepressant action of (R,S)-ketamine and its enantiomers, although the precise molecular mechanisms underlying antidepressant actions of (R,S)-ketamine and its enantiomers remain unclear. In this paper, we review recent findings on the molecular mechanisms underlying the antidepressant actions of (R,S)-ketamine and its potent enantiomer arketamine. Furthermore, we discuss the possible role of the brain-gut-microbiota axis and brain-spleen axis in stress-related psychiatric disorders and in the antidepressant-like action of arketamine. Finally, we discuss the potential of arketamine as a treatment for cognitive impairment in psychiatric disorders, Parkinson's disease, osteoporosis, inflammatory bowel diseases, and stroke.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.